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Fair Feed Program

Fair Feed - Cafe Cards Program

To be able to choose what, where and with whom to eat food is a powerful, motivating and engaging tool.

About the Fair Feed program:Fair Feed provides meals to young people in socially inclusive ways, while increasing engagement with the wider community, friends and family and the young person’s worker. Fair Feed is a program of North East Support and Action for Youth Inc. (NESAY).

Fair Feed referral process: Eligibility for the program is assessed by a NESAY practitioner. Once approved the young person will receive a Fair Feed card (similar to a coffee loyalty card) with 10 meal vouchers, worth up to the value of $15. The young person contributes $3 to the price of the meal and drink. NESAY will reimburse cafes for the difference between the $3 and the price of the meal on a monthly basis.

Background of the program:The café meals program was researched and developed by RMIT University and Time for Youth in Geelong, Victoria. The Geelong program has been running successfully for over 12 years and several other similar programs are running throughout Victoria. Existing programs have found that there are many positive outcomes, not only for the young person receiving a nutritious meal, but also for the participating cafes.

The participating cafés reflected very positively on the experience and stated they felt very proud to be contributing to improving a young person’s life. The thinking behind the program is that there are many difficulties in young people’s lives which results in homelessness and or vulnerability. Addressing these complex issues takes time, however by at least assuring that they are well fed may not solve all their problems, it will improve their capacity to deal with the difficulties in their lives if they are not malnourished.

Benefits of the program:Existing café meals programs have proven that they can make a difference to the lives of young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness on three levels:

Improved nutrition and meal frequency outcomes

Improved sense of belonging and social connection

Improved capacity by support agencies to actively address with the young person, the factors currently negatively impacting on his/her life.

Fair Feed has the ability to bring about positive change in young people’s lives through the simple, but powerful act of eating as part of the community in which they live. Fair Feed is an alternative to traditional food relief. Fair Feed reduces the young person’s exposure to chronic homelessness and it creates an opportunity for preventative case management of young people at risk of homelessness.